Observing Memories Issue 4 | Page 10

DEEP VIEW

In or out ?

Social reaction to the exhumation of Franco from the Valle de los Caídos

Matilde Eiroa Mari Luz Congosto Universidad Carlos III de Madrid HISMEDI Project ( uc3m . libguides . com / Hismedi )
From black and white …

Forty-four years passed between the interment of Franco on 23 November 1975 and

his exhumation on 24 October 2019 . In Spanish society , a range of feelings have been expressed about the final location of the person who was dictator for four long decades . His death and burial in the Valle de los Caídos ( Valley of the Fallen ) had a strong impact in the media and in society that was almost paralysing . This was due more to the political consequences Franco ’ s death would have than to the formal procedure of his funeral . The ceremony within the basilica , which culminated with the placing of a slab engraved with his name and the obligatory protocol , was accompanied outside by Falangists , traditionalists , ex-prisoners , provisional second lieutenants , Legionnaire knights , brotherhoods of fighters , Portuguese Viriatos and members of the Portuguese secret police ( PIDE ), Romanian iron guards , Croatians , Italian fascists and German neo-Nazis , in a multicolour landscape of blue , black and brown shirts adorned with the medals of Mussolini , Hitler , Salazar and Franco . The monument erected under the direction of Franco with the labour of Republican political prisoners already fulfilled the purpose for which it had been constructed . It housed the embalmed body of Francisco Franco , Caudillo de España por la Gracia de Dios ( Leader of Spain , by the Grace of God ), as he was called insistently by his entourage of hagiographers from 1939 , the end of the Civil War .
After his death , the media put Franco ’ s portrait on the front page and special issues described the physical decline and last days of the elderly dictator . The perspective was one of irreparable loss . Franco was presented as hero , saviour of the fatherland , providential man , the best statesman , an exemplary head of household , the sentinel of the west – in reference to his position as anti-communist guardian – and other descriptions that compared him
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Observing Memories ISSUE 4